Pressure Lamps International

Stanley Knight left his job as a salesman with the Liquid Carbonic
company sometime around 1910/11, and with his brother James Knight,
started the Knight Soda Fountain Company of Chicago, where
they gained a considerable reputation with their "White
Knight" ice cream and soda fountain. With the Knight brother's
experience in the brass stampings and components industry, it was not
surprising that the company at some point in time became involved
with the manufacture and marketing of incandescent lighting
appliances, and there seems to have been a name change to the Knight
Light & Soda Fountain Co. The Knight family has previously
had a major involvement with Acorn Brass Manufacturing,
and there may well have been some co-operation between the two
companies regarding the design of gasoline lamps. Their address was
2701 - 2729 N. Kildare Avenue, Chicago. ILL. Stanley C. Knight, son
of Stanley Knight, reports that his father only worked with James
Knight for a few years before setting up his own company, The Stanley
Knight Corporation of Chicago.

There seems to have been a later divergence in specialisation, with
another name change. The Knight Light Co. using an address at 341-351
West Chicago Avenue, Corner Orleans Street, Chicago. At this time
the company concentrated on hollow wire systems, with each lamp
capable of lighting an area 20 feet square. Where customers supplied
a plan of the building to be lit, the company would cut the hollow
wires to length, and supply a kit of parts all ready for installation.

It was inevitable that portable lighting devices followed the success
in the fixed hollow wire products. Definite information is hard to
find, but a well publicised product is their table lamp #321-M, the Sunray
twin mantle match lighting lamp burning gasoline. This was similar to
many of the other designs of the period. The generator was the type
with a single loop passing into a burner which was a little chunkier
than other brands. Safety was a major point in their advertising,
with a claim that the lamp could be rolled on the floor with no
danger, and that "Even though it should fall off the table while
lighted, nothing serious could occur". This was a claim made by
several manufacturers, but it's not advisable to test it!

These images are from an undated advertising brochure, probably 1920s.

The burner hood and shade holder may be marginally wider than the
more common Coleman top, and the standard Coleman table lamp shades
may not fit the Sunray holder.

1922 Advert from "Popular Mechanics"

A final complication is that Knight Light and Soda Fountain also made
lamps for Otto Bernz, and though these are only found on rare
occasions, they provide evidence for other associations. Dr Jay
reports: "The Bernz lantern is a Knight-Light made by the
Knight Light and Soda Fountain Co. in Chicago. I would guess sometime
in the 20s. Otto Bernz imported Swedish camp stoves which they sold
with a decal added with the OB name. This is another bought in
product in the same manner. The lantern has been modified with the
addition of a blow torch pump replacing the external pump originally
fitted. Knight Light product is often not marked which makes ID
difficult. The first time I saw one of these I thought the pump was
maybe a home made addition but I have now seen two more so I now
believe they were bought and modified by OB for re-sale."

In their time the Knight Light Co. seems to be among the leading
manufacturers of lighting equipment. They exported to a number of
countries through New York and New Orleans, and would also make
shipments via San Francisco, Seattle and Vancouver. Within the United
States they sold through established agencies, and direct to users in
areas not covered by their representatives. In relatively highly
populated areas they had representatives working on contract who
would hold and supply goods to avoid the delay of shipping overland
from Chicago. Catalogues were only supplied to the reps, and
consequently not much in the way of comprehensive papers survive today.

Ellen Knight Ogle confirms that James Knight sold the
Knight Soda Fountain Co. business in the 1930s for $3,000,000, and at
that time the company was absorbed by Bastian and Blessing, later to
to be taken over yet again. Jamie Shafer, Grandson of James Knight,
reports a lovely story, in his own words, "I remember going
into the local drugstore in the village of Three Lakes, Wisconsin,
back in the '30s with my grandfather, for the purpose of buying
(forbidden by my grandmother before lunch) ice cream cones. And there
my grandfather showed me the soda fountain, made by his recently sold
company - a very large and imposing affair of roseate marble with a
handsome embossed and enameled metal plaque containing the words
Knight Soda Fountain Co. and the figure of a knight in armor."

Knight Soda Fountains are themselves sought after by collectors, but
regretfully fall outside the remit of this web site.

References:

I am very grateful to Jamie Shafer for his recollections and
details of the Knight Family history, and for the photographs of James
Knight and the Acorn Brass Works. Thanks
too to Stanley C. Knight, whose father was also instrumental
in setting up and running the family business.

Thanks too to Dr Jay for information on Otto Bernz.

Other material was obtained from copies of Knight Light Company catalogues